Solitudinem Faciunt et "Reformationem" Appellant...

It was, I suppose, predictable that Europe’s austerians would claim vindication at the first hint of an upturn. Still, Wolfgang Schäuble’s piece in the FT, in which he claims complete vindication because Europe has had one, count it, one quarter of growth is pretty awesome…. It takes quite a lot of chutzpah--do they have that word in Germany?--to claim that this is a record of successful preparation for structural transformation…. I’d take particular professional exception to Schäuble’s claim that Europe is following the recipe of Sweden in the early 1990s and Asia in the late 1990s. Those recipes involved large currency devaluations, not the slow,grinding “internal devaluation” supposedly happening in Europe’s periphery. And as I’ve stressed a number of times, the Asian economies bounced back fast, with nothing like the seemingly endless depression in much of Europe:

What we have to realize here, however, is that at this point it’s not just a matter of ideology: egos and careers are at stake. The evidence suggests that Europe’s austerians did a terrible thing, ruining the lives of millions. They will never admit it; they will seize on anything that gives them an out.

It was, I suppose, predictable that Europe’s austerians would claim vindication at the first hint of an upturn. Still, Wolfgang Schäuble’s piece in the FT, in which he claims complete vindication because Europe has had one, count it, one quarter of growth is pretty awesome…. It takes quite a lot of chutzpah--do they have that word in Germany?--to claim that this is a record of successful preparation for structural transformation…. I’d take particular professional exception to Schäuble’s claim that Europe is following the recipe of Sweden in the early 1990s and Asia in the late 1990s. Those recipes involved large currency devaluations, not the slow,grinding “internal devaluation” supposedly happening in Europe’s periphery. And as I’ve stressed a number of times, the Asian economies bounced back fast, with nothing like the seemingly endless depression in much of Europe:

What we have to realize here, however, is that at this point it’s not just a matter of ideology: egos and careers are at stake. The evidence suggests that Europe’s austerians did a terrible thing, ruining the lives of millions. They will never admit it; they will seize on anything that gives them an out.